Ophir Women played Lisburn at UUJ in a league game, only a few weeks after their preseason friendly against the same opponents. This was a hugely physical game, perhaps the most physical game the Ophir girls have come up against so far. To their credit, they did not back down, not one inch.

From the kick off, Ophir showed what sort of a team they are becoming. They put together 19 phases, I will say that again, 19 phases, made up of 2 pick n drives, 12 pods and 5 back moves, before Cindy Cancino showed her speed and power by rounding the tiring Lisburn defence to touch down under the posts. Molly Dixon slotted over the conversion. Ophir continued to dominate possession and territory in the first half and after another 10 mins Ophir made it 14-0 following fantastic rucking and good back play, with Megan Finney scoring her 1st try of the day, also converting her own score.

Megan went on to score another 2 tries in the 2nd half. Lisburn did fight back with 2 tries of their own but Ophir always looked to have the edge throughout the game putting in some dominant tackles to negate the bigger, more powerful Lisburn forward pack.

Special mention goes out to our two Players of the match, Jacki Lyons and Orla Sheilds who had amazing workrate throughout the game, brought energy to our line speed and were a constant threat around rucks. Also, Megan Finney playing 10 for only the 2nd time, grabbed a hattrick of tries with 3 conversions topping the points leader board. The team was captained by Michelle Fiddis. Playing Centre for the first time was Catrina Anderson who proved to be a powerful runner through the midfield. Vicky Thompson, playing in her 2nd match, made a notable impact in the Front Row when she came on in the 2nd half. Phoebe English also played her first ever game of rugby on the wing. She showed great potential and we cant wait to see how she develops.

What was encouraging from a coaching perspective was the team felt they could have done much better in terms of performance. Lets see how they progress in the teams next match v North Down on Sunday 9th Oct, at UUJ. Come along and give them your support.